


the gift

by fallencrest



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bodyswap, Deal with a Devil, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-17
Updated: 2018-10-17
Packaged: 2019-08-03 11:45:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16325597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallencrest/pseuds/fallencrest
Summary: “Make me like Sidney Crosby,” he says and the demon laughs and shows him Sid’s face in the mirror instead of his own.





	the gift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [darkrosaleen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkrosaleen/gifts).



“Welcome to the league,” Sid says. His handshake is firm and he pulls Connor into a one-armed hug. 

Connor doesn’t know what to say. It isn’t just that he’d watched Sid growing up, it isn’t just that he’d wanted to be Sid, it’s how he’d stood in front of the mirror, behind the summoning circle he’d drawn up and made a deal for this. 

 

*

Connor is eighteen and undrafted and standing in front of the mirror and the demon’s face is unlike anything he’d expected. 

He makes his demand: “Make me like Sidney Crosby,” and the demon laughs and shows him Sid’s face in the mirror instead of his own. 

Connor feels his face, his body, and knows the demon has made it real. 

He’s eighteen but still skinny, never quite hit that promised growth spurt and the demon has made him bigger, all filled-out, Sid’s face, Sid’s body, and Connor lets his hands wander before saying “no, no that’s not what I wanted, no,” because he knows he can’t explain to his parents, his team. There’s no way to explain how it had happened and he can’t just _be_ Sid, that would ruin everything. He has to do this all on his own. He’s just that he’s scared, he’s worked so hard and he isn’t going to make it. Everyone says he’s good but he isn’t good enough. He already hasn’t made it. 

He’d spent hours and hours in the pre-dawn skating, had captained his mites team, bantam, midgets. He’d been a goalscorer, he’d done everything, but he still hadn’t ended up good enough for the NHL to draft him.

*

“I want to be as good at hockey as Sidney Crosby,” he says. His voice shakes a little but his words are slow and clear. 

The demon sneers.

He can’t quite figure out how it happens, it isn’t that he lives his life all over again. Or maybe it is. He has enough memories of it that maybe he did. Maybe he lived it all over in one night. Exceptional status, Team Canada at World Juniors and everyone is calling him a generational talent, everyone is calling him Sid. He can’t help his awkwardness and his discomfort whenever people tell him that or whenever they say that he’s earnt it because he remembers the smell of sulphur, the circle, the mirror, that smile and, when Sidney Crosby shakes his hand, he has to swallow the lump in his throat because he knows what Sid’s hands feel like without ever having met him before.

*

The demon sneers and he says he’ll let Connor keep that body just for one night, can tell he wants it. “My gift to you,” the demon says, “the only part you’ll get for free.” 

He disappears and Connor can’t let himself think about the price. 

He drowns himself in Sid’s hands, climbing into bed in his parents house with a body that isn’t his own. 

He tells himself _there’s no price I wouldn’t pay for hockey_ and hopes it’s true.


End file.
